what she says: i'm fine
what she means: saiki actually does care about teruhashi and that is made clear multiple times in the series, especially season two. specifically the passing out scene - if he didn't truly care he could have walked away long before it happened, but he was *watching* her. he can't tell the future (in most cases) so you cannot say he had a vision of her passing out. he was studying her beforehand. he knew something was going to happen. and even a day before she passed out, he still kept an eye on her in the crowd. even if he didn't know she'd pass out, he still stayed to watch what would happen. he's made it abundantly clear that if he doesn't care for something, he's not curious about it. you cannot argue that curiosity is the only reason he stayed. he didn't even give his regular excuse of "i got dragged into it" because he didn't. he watched, he saw, he cared. and the mixer episode; he dragged the three mixer guys away, even after making sure that teruhashi had a good time. when she thought to herself about wanting saiki there even if he'd lowkey be a buzzkill, saiki was touched by that. TOUCHED BY THAT. you don't get touched by someone you don't care about. you would just find them annoying. even if he doesn't like her romantically, he cares for her (and all his other friends) despite denying it time and time again.












